FWIW, I'm still collecting some thoughts, because this is a complex topic (as you all know), and I'm tired of having my views misinterpreted and misattributed. So I want to state them clearly and carefully. This is simply a reaction to one item. At 09:12 PM 9/4/96 -0500, Chuck Thompson wrote:

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Date: Tue, 3 Sep 1996 14:23:40 -0700 X-Sender: tcmay@mail.got.net To: cypherpunks@toad.com From: tcmay@got.net (Timothy C. May) Subject: Re: The Esther Dyson Flap Sender: owner-cypherpunks@toad.com

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Please note the quote marks carefully. I said [something like] the first paragraph, but the rest is the "reporter" from Scientology, plus a paraphrase.

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By the way, the Scientologists have also noted her views:

"Esther Dyson, member of the board of directors of the Electronic Frontier Foundation and member of the National Information Infrastructure Advisory Council, spoke on the anonymity issue at the fifth Computers, Freedom & Privacy (CFP) conference in San Francisco. "I have a concern about the spread of bad behavior on the Net," said Dyson. "Anonymity figures into this, and I feel that it has proven to not be a positive factor. It breaks down the community which we are seeking to build, and could turn the 'big cities' of the information infrastructure into a big cesspool."

"Remailers who facilitate anonymous postings are part of the problem. They can act as conduits for those who seek anonymity as a way to act illegally without getting caught; yet remailers are able to shield themselves from responsibility or liability.

"Computer experts stress that anonymous users should at least be trackable by the remailers -- and that ones who act unlawfully can easily put the remailers at risk. Dyson noted that in self-regulatory schemes for almost any part of the Internet, "visibility, not anonymity, would have a strong place.""

(end quote, from "Freedom," at http://www.theta.com/goodman/hijack.htm)

Esther Dyson Always make new mistakes! EDventure Holdings <edyson@edventure.com> 1 (212) 924-8800 1 (212) 924-0240 fax 104 Fifth Avenue New York, NY 10011 USA www.edventure.com High-Tech Forum in Lisbon, October 27-29, 1996 PC Forum in Tucson, Arizona, March 23-26, 1997